[Episode 21 - Isobel - 2]

The next day, I walk around the floats, satisfied with the way they've turned out. The boys are working surprisingly well but I don't see Elena anywhere.

I smile and hand her the clipboard and voila, I see my sister and Jeremy walking together. I run towards them as Jeremy questions Elena "Are you lying to me right now?"

"W-Why do you say that?" she fumbles and looks to me "He knows, Elena..."

"'Cause that's what you do. Lying. You lie about everything. I know what Anna is and I know that you know. So tell me, do you have any idea where she is?" Jeremy asks worriedly.

"She isn't around?" I ask, I put her on one of the float jobs to get to know her more, but she's been absent for that. I thought she was avoiding me. But now, something feels wrong.

He doesn't speak but rushes off, dialing on his phone. "Jer...Jeremy wait! Jeremy!" she shouts after him, to be ignored. She turns to me, angry "How did he know?" 

"He found your diary, and I gave him mine"

"Why would you do that? Putting him in danger!"

"Because not knowing put him in more danger Elena!" I explain. She huffs and turns behind and I follow her, but not for even one second because just in front of us now, stands our dearest vamp-mother.

"What are you doing here?" I ask, involuntarily stepping in front of my twin. Yeah, yeah, I might hate my sister, but I don't think Stefan will be happy to leave his darling unprotected.

"I'm your mother, girls. I want to be more involved in your life"

"I don't want you in my life" Elena grits out out from behind me and I smile sarcastically "Who would?"

"I understand that. You already have a lot of people that you care about but I've been studying. Let's see if I got this right..." she raises her head smugly as she points to various people across the field.

"There is the witchy best friend, Bonnie. Gonna stay away from that one-"

"Damn right" I grit out, taking a step towards her. She just pushes me back with a finger and then points to the far end near the trees "Oh...sad little brother Jeremy"

"And there's Caroline...obnoxious Caroline. I got all of my info from her by the way. She had no idea who I was and she wouldn't stop yapping...! Oh..." She points to Matt "And there's Matt, friend-" she looks at me "-ex" she looks at Elena " and yappy's future ex. Lots of connections there..."

"Matt is not involved in this" Elena defends.

"He's involved with you, isn't he?"

"Look, you shouldn't be here. You need to leave" I warn, hands ready to rip her head off.

"No, I have some friends here too. Look, you see that man over there?" she points far off "Standing next to Matt by the Float?" I see a guy who waves to me and smiles sweetly "His name is Frank, he's very handsome and he's also quite handy and he'd noticed that the axles are a little rusty which is very dangerous. So, all you have to do is apply a little bit of pressure and..."

"No!" I shout as I watch what happens next. Frank jumps on the trailer above Matt. A loud crack is heard and Matt grunts down and shouts in pain as his arm gets crushed. Elena tries to run for him, Isobel grabs her. I, on the other hand don't wait for her hand as I rush towards the trailer.

"Get this trailer! Come on guys help me!" Tyler shouts to the people around and a few try to get it off the fallen's jock's arm. I push with all my might and I notice, so does Stefan at the exact moment. Our combined strength, along with that of the rest of the boys', helps Matt get free.

"Caroline, call an ambulance!" I order and sigh in relief as I already see her phone being whipped out. I look about as Stefan joins beside me, Elena and Isobel continue to speak, my sister more emotional but Isobel.... not an expression except smugness.

"Why are you doing this?" she cries out.

"I'm showing you how easy it is to hurt the people that you care about" 

I grit my teeth in anger and step forward but Stefan catches my arm and throws me a shake of his head. There are too many people around.

"And you're doing this just because of Johnathan Gilbert's invention?" Elena asks angrily. Too much harm done for a madman's 'invention'.

"Hand it over and all will be stop" Isobel offers.

"I told you, Damon is not going to give it to me!"

"I think that you underestimate how much Damon cares about you" I hear Isobel say and Stefan looks pointedly at me, the look which I avoid.

"He'll kill you before he gives it up" my sister tries to warn her.

"Is that before or after I kill your Jeremy?" 

I look at his previous place, he isn't there "Jeremy!?" I turn around again. He's nowhere here, not near the History float nor the school teams.

"Jeremy!" I turn again, this time in the direction of Elena and Isobel, or where Isobel was. 

She's ghosted us.

▹▹▹

Elena, Stefan and I enter Alaric's empty classroom while the rest of school preps outside. Bonnie stands at the end of the room, the Grimoire in front of her. Apparently, Emily was the one who gave potency to the 'invention' that puts down vampires, when Johnathan Gilbert wasn't looking. He was an impotent jerk all along then.

"Where is the device?" Bonnie asks.

"Damon has it. He's going to be difficult to reason with" Stefan answers heavily. I just want to get this over with. Why is Isobel doing this?

"We'll go to him, I'll talk to him" Elena almost eagerly runs out but I stop her.

"He's not just gonna hand it over," I grit out "...especially if it's harmful to vampires-" 

"What if it's not?" Bonnie raises her head defiantly.

"Absolutely not!" Damon shouts with wide eyes as he palms the little troublesome thing. Good decision Smoldy.

"Just hear me out" Elena steps forward and Damon steps away from her.

"I'm not gonna give the device to Isobel so she could give it to John who is going to turn it to kill me. I like being a living dead person"

"But it'll be useless, Bonnie can take its power away" Elena reasons and we all look to said witch. It's not like I don't trust her, it's just I don't think it is good to hand anything over to Isobel. But she has Jeremy. I thought Uncle John could help me with that, but he's not picking up any calls. 

"I don't trust her" Damon narrows his eyes at the dark-haired witch.

"I can remove the original spell-"

"- and John and Isobel will never know" Elena finishes. Stefan and I exchange looks of uncertainity.

"No, I'll get Jeremy in my own way" Damon waves it off.

"Really Damon? How are you going to do that? Because Isobel is a vampire and Jeremy could be dead the second we walk in the door" I grit out angrily. Damon gives up and turns skeptically to my friend.

"Are you even up for this? I mean no offense, you're no Emily Bennett. Emily knew what she was doing"

"I've been practicing"

"It's no piano lessons, honey..." he rolls his eyes.

"What's your favourite book?" she stands in front of the huge bookcase.

"What?"

"Name a book, any book" she calls out annoyedly.

"Name a book..." he scratches his chin "How about "Call of the wild", Jack London?" A book flies and lands in Damon's hands. Damon looks down at his full hands "Jack London. Great parlour trick"

"We're doing this, Damon. And we're doing it my way. Now give me the device. We're wasting time!" Elena extends her hand desperately.

"I don't trust you," he looks to Bon "-I tried to kill you"

"You're right, you can't trust me" she accepts. Seeing that nothing was helping the situation here, my sister steps up bravely "But you can trust me"

Damon looks at her quietly and then at us, I don't speak but stare right ahead. After long thought, Damon gives her the device.

"Thank you" Elena whispers gratefully and turns to the witch.

She places the golden little round thing in front of the old Grimoire and closes her eyes. A few seconds later, it levitates a feet or two up. Bonnie concentrates with closed eyes for another minute and the invention settles back onto it's place. 

"Done" she whispers. I step forward to take it but Bonnie snatches it off first and hands it to Elena with visibly shaking hands. 

"Great, now what?" Damon asks, somewhat disgustedly.

I look to him, stating my least favorite part "Now we give it to Mombie"

▹▹▹

It's dark as Isobel struts to us at the Town Square "Where is the device?"

"Where's our brother?" I demand.

"This isn't a negotiation. Where is the invention?"

"Where is my brother?"

"Do you really think that I came alone?" The earlier man and another girl come behind her. 

I smirk "I know I don't deserve a Nobel Prize but did you really think I was an imbecile? Did you really think that we came alone?" The Salvatore brothers come behind us. Elena wanted this to be just her and me, but looks like my idea was worth it. 

Both of them are at least one-fifty years older than her. Necks snap easy around here.

"For god sakes, call home" Isobel rolls her eyes.

"What?" Elena speaks up, confused.

"Call home and ask to speak to your brother Jeremy" When she does, the ring is picked up almost immediately "Hello?" I hear my brother's voice and the knot in my stomach loosens.

"Jeremy, are you okay?"

"Yeah yeah I'm fine, Uncle John hit his head. It was an... accident..." He hints and my brows furrow, John was kidnapped too?

"We're all laughing!" Jenna's drunk voice comes across the line. They're safe.

"But yeah I'm okay"

"We'll be home soon, alright?" Elena assures and hangs up.

"You were never gonna hurt him" I state, numbly surprised.

"No, I was going to kill him. Don't look for any redeeming qualities in me Kat. I don't have any" There it is - she called me by my name. Life sucks around here.

"But you took a risk with Damon. How did you know that he was gonna give it to me?" Elena asks.

"Because he's in love with you" she states smugly. I look down, I knew it before. What I'm afraid of, is what danger that fact will cause my sister, if I won't be there to protect her.

Elena hands her the device stoically "Thank you"

"For what?" It's Isobel's turn to be confused.

"-For being such a monumental disappointment. It keeps the memory of my real mother perfectly intact" she states and steps back. I see something flash past my birth mother's eyes but it disappears in a second.

I step forward just then and the ones behind Isobel take a threatening stance. I hug the woman who was supposed to be there for me. She goes rigid and I can imagine the looks on Stefan's and Damon's faces. I bend down to her ear and whisper "I thought you would be worth it, you know?"

I push her off me "Turns out... You're not" I stand beside Elena.

"Goodbye, girls. As long as you have a Salvatore on your arm, you're doomed. Katherine was smart. She got out. But we all know that you're not Katherine" she says and walks off, perfectly slow, as if taunting us.

Stefan embraces Elena as she looks at Damon. Before Damon leaves, we exchange a nod. No one deserves to know that the girl he once loved, just got rid of him. 

I turn to see Stefan looking from over Elena's shoulder as she clutches him tighter. He extends a hand to me and tilts his head, asking me if I'm like her, if I need support. I look from his chiseled hand to Elena and at Stefan. 

I walk away in the other direction.

▹▹▹

"Jeremy we have to talk about all this" Elena peeps into our brother's room, keeping me behind her for entry, I guess.

"No, we really don't" Jeremy glares at her.

"I don't know what Anna told you but there are things that you need to know"

"Yeah? Because I'm pretty sure that your journal covered it. I read a section about Damon erasing my memory, about what happened to Vicki"

"Jeremy, please," she rushes in "-you don't understand. The night that Vicki died, it was like mom and dad died all over again. It was all over your face and it hurt so much to see you like that. I just wanted to take away your pain. I'm so sorry...."

"Get out!" he grits out angrily.

"No, Jeremy..."

"Just get out! Please..." he asks us, looking at me. I nod slowly and take Elena with me, out of the room. Our brother slams the door on our faces.

I hug Elena and take her into her room. She sits on that, wiping her tears off, sniffling. I crouch in front of her and take her hands into mine "Elena..."

"What? Just say what you have to and go! This has been a very crappy day and it's okay, you can add to it" she says angrily.

"Elena... It's been a crappy day for us, and I'm here for you. And..."

"And what?"

"Just remember... That no matter what, I'm here for you"

"Come on, let's get you to bed, Jenna's going to be pissed otherwise"

▹▹▹

I come downstairs in my pyjamas for water when I hear John on the phone "I know..." he hangs up and turns around to look at me "Kat... How much of that did you hear?"

"Don't worry, I just came before you hung up. Who was it?" I ask off-handedly as I take the jug.

"Isobel" 

"Isobel? What did she say?"

"She's.... going away. And, her emotions are on now, how did you do that?" he makes conversation.

"In case you didn't know from my anger episodes, I'm a Guardian. Pretty sure Dad studied them too, along vampires"

"Guardian?" John stops in his tracks.

"Bulb went off?" I purse my lips.

"How're you dealing with it?"

"Please, Uncle John, if I wanted to share such worries, I'd do it with my father, o wait" I perk up with false realisation "He's gone. Good night" I roll my eyes and go upstairs.

As I lie in bed, a heavy thought plagues me, what if I turn out to be like Isobel?